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The Big Takeover > essays

Podcasting: The Most Overrated Media Trend Since Friendster

by John Davidson
27 March 2006

Hey, everyone’s got a podcast these days, right?

As if the hundreds of streaming Internet radio stations, the thousands of MP3 blogs, millions of MySpace sites, and YouTube.com don’t deliver enough content, podcasting is yet another digital revolution onto which we’re supposed to be latching.

Problem is, podcasting is largely falling on deaf ears. Oh sure, people are subscribing to podcasts, but they likely aren’t listening to their subscriptions. According to the linked article, the “relevance of portability to podcast usage has been vastly overstated. In fact, more than 80% of podcast downloads never make it to a portable player or another device—they are consumed on the PC (or, worse, never listened to or deleted).”

Oh sure, podcasting makes sense for established brands such as NPR or RICKY GERVAIS or for events such as concerts. But what’s the attraction of hearing your “favorite blogger” play amateur DJ for 30 minutes? You must realize that after this ego trip is over, the following inclination is to go video, which ends up producing an even worse trainwreck.

Unfortunately, podcasting generally validates common criticism of media technology, that when there are few or no barriers to entry, filtering and aggregating content becomes more essential. So just as cheap recording equipment has made it easy for any aspiring musician to make a demo, it’s been just as easy for any aspiring DJ or talk show host to have a podcast. But if a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it fall… [ A podcast tree, perchance? -ed.]

Filed under media industry music technology

Comments

Boy you hit the nail on the head here. I wish I would’ve written this column. I own an iPod, maintain 2 blogs (including one for this site, of course) and check in on YouTube and MySpace (I have a profile on there) regularly, but I’ve never even been tempted to do the podcast thing, though I’ve listened to plenty of broadcasts on the internet. If I’m taking something to go, it’s music and I have trouble fitting everything I want onto my iPod as it is.


— Matthew Berlyant    2006-03-27 16:56    #

Seriously, does anyone need the GQ podcast? The only podcasts I want feature bands playing live or dishing out free things that I can’t get anywhere else. DJs are horrible enough on the radio, how could I possibly stomach some loser in Pawtucket who has nothing better to do here than some recycled Pitchfork playlist with mumbled commentary?

IT’S CABLE ACCESS RADIO.


— John Davidson    2006-03-28 01:50    #

Blogs may be slightly more overrated than podcasts.


— Bill    2006-03-28 12:33    #

What irks me about this whole podcast thing, is how Apple presented it like some crazy new idea. People have been putting audio up on the web for many many years now. Suddenly, someone starts calling it by a new name and it’s a full blown phenomenon.


— Adam Symons    2006-03-28 19:08    #

I think the difference is, there is a much larger audience for it on itunes than anyone could ever hope for on their on little website in some dank part of the internet.

Anyway, I like it because there are vastly more stations putting up internet recordings of their radio shows. So I am able to download a favorite talk show of mine that doesn’t play in the area that I live in now and w/o commericals too!

However, I do know the vast amount of content in the podcast area from personal experience is very sub-par and not worth the time to sift through the muck.


— Nicholas Carlson    2006-03-30 22:25    #